Chambers Creek Regional Park

Chambers Creek Regional Park is the piece of this shoreline most visitors actually walk. It is a 930-acre Pierce County park wrapped around a former gravel mine on Puget Sound, with more than two miles of saltwater shoreline, two and a half miles of creek and canyon, open meadows, an off-leash dog area and long views west to the Olympics. The golf course sits inside it, but the park is a separate proposition and a free one: the Soundview and Grandview trails run the bluff above the water, and a pedestrian bridge crosses the railway down to the beach. The county also keeps its award-winning Environmental Services Building and playfields here, along with the Swoon artwork, and rents the Central Meadow and Sport & Event Lawn for gatherings. The jurisdictional detail matters if you are looking things up: the land is owned and operated by Pierce County, but it lies inside the city limits of University Place, just north of Steilacoom.

Verified details

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What to know

• This is Pierce County property inside the City of University Place; county park rules apply, not city ones.
• Portions of the site remain closed, and the county requires a permit for gatherings of 25 or more, amplified sound, drones or anything with a fee.
• University Place is a separate city adjacent to Tacoma; plan this as a short drive or a deliberate bus trip rather than an in-city stop.

Editor's tips

• Come for the walk rather than the golf: the bluff trail gives you the shoreline and the Olympic horizon without a tee time.
• Sunset is the reason to plan the timing — the park closes a half hour after sunset, so the last light and the last legal hour arrive together.